Frankensteam
by Tetsuwan Penguin
Summary: In a Victorian Steampunk setting a strange invention found in an old mansion is brought back to life. This story is a sort of crossover with "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen".
1. Chapter 1

**Frankensteam**

 _A Steampunk Frankenstein like Astro tale._

 **My** good friend and colleague Dr. Edsel Moss, his teenage daughter Urania, and I were visiting the old country in an effort to find traces of my friend's family ancestry. The inheritance of my friend's father's estate had finally been settled, and he had decided to inspect the old homestead that had been in the family for many generations. It had been many years since he'd last been there, having been away at boarding schools during his childhood the place didn't hold many strong memories for him.

It being only a few months into the turn of the new century, it seemed strange to find ourselves in a part of the world that seemed to have been forgotten by time. After a long trip by steamship, railroad and horse drawn carriages we finally found ourselves on the Moss family estate.

The house stood on the top of a modest sized hill, surrounded by acres of rocky soil and an old growth forest of crab apple trees. A winding private road led uphill to the estate after forking off from the main road, which lead back into town in one direction, and towards the boarder of the country in the other. It seemed that a old homestead was perpetually covered by dark clouds threatening rain most of the time preventing the sun from casting away the gloom which hung over the old mansion.

Dr. Moss extracted a large key ring from his pocket and carefully tried one key after another in the lock before finally managing to open the gate. It took the two of us to push the rusted wrought iron panels open, the old hinges creaking from lack of lubrication and layers of rust. Urania cast her eyes upward at the upper stories of the old building, and the tower like spire that rose high in the middle of the property.

We carried our bags up the winding walkway that lead up to the main door of the old mansion. Once again, Edsel tried a half dozen keys before finding the one that gained us access to the front door, which also creaked on rusty hinges as it was opened. I had the forethought to have brought several lanterns with me to light our way. I pumped the lantern's fuel tank up to pressure before lighting the mantel wick, the hiss of its pressurized gasoline fuel supply and its brilliant white flame cast away the gloom of the dusty interior of the front chamber of the house.

"Look dad, this house seems to have Edison lights." Urania said. Sure enough, there were carbon filament bulbs in sockets hanging by wires from the ceiling. I traced the electrical plumbing back to the source with my eyes, and located a switch on the far wall. I tried it, but it appeared that the power was gone.

"I suspect that this house is wired with storage batteries," I explained, "It would appear that they are all discharged at the moment. Perhaps we can mend it later." Urania was disappointed, but nodded.

"I'm not surprised at the lighting." Dr. Moss said. "My late father was an inventor, an artist, and a dreamer with money to burn. He was well acquainted with the inventions of Edison and Bell. I think he had copies of the blueprints published by Charles Babbage for his proposed machinery, and he knew Tesla and Maxim quite well. I've heard stories about him that would make him out to be another Dr. Frankenstein, though I can assure you that he did not rob graves and stitch dead bodies together. From what I've pieced together from the tall tales told about him he was a kind of Da Vinci, creating machines that the renaissance era painter and inventor would have been proud of. For sure he did scare the crap out of the ignorant locals in the town below us."

"Yes I've read almost all of your father's monographs," I told Edsel. "Many of the ideas that he had published were not well accepted by the scientific community, yet I think that in the end he will be proven correct. In particularly, his ideas on atomic theory seemed a bit unique. Your father reminds me of a certain Swiss patent clerk I once had lunch with in Zurich."

 **It** took us several trips between the road and the house to unload the wagon that had brought us from the railroad station to the countryside Moss Manor. We had to bring enough food and sundries to stock the cupboards of the old homestead which had been vacant for several years. The bedrooms were on the second floor of the large house, Urania found a beautiful corner room that seemed cheerful enough. I took the formal guest room just across the hallway from the master bedroom where Edsel unloaded his suitcases. After finding three clean cups the doctor and myself had ourselves a nightcap of warm cherry, and Urania a glass of cold milk from what we had packed in the ice chest that was filled in town.

* * *

 **Early** the next morning we proceeded to thoroughly explore the house. The clouds had parted just enough to allow some sunlight to enter though the many windows the house provided for that very purpose. I still had my trusty gasoline powered mantel lantern to light our way in the basement, and the darker corners of the old building. The first order of the day however was breakfast. I started a fire going in the stove, and Urania proceeded to cook up up a breakfast of eggs and bacon. I put a pot of coffee up on the stove, the warm beverage drove the chill out of our bones. It was decided to start our exploration in the cellar, hopefully I would be able to get the central heat furnace going to prevent another chilly night.

It appeared that there was a good stock of coal in the bin downstairs, and the furnace looked to be in good shape. Edsel and I cleaned it out and got the dampers unblocked. I crawled inside and was able to stare up the chimney. "Looks to be in good shape." I announced, "should be safe to handle a roaring fire." The doctor and I each grabbed a shovel and filled the firebox with fuel. I splashed a bit of gasoline onto the coal and added a lit match. We watched the gauges on the furnace rise into the green arc as the pressure in the boilers entered the operational areas. "We have heat." Edsel smiled.

The two of us washed the coal dust off of ourselves and we proceeded to examine the rest of the cellar. It didn't take long to discover the power room where the storage batteries for the electrical system were located. The batteries were charged by several windmills behind the house. I was sure that they needed some maintenance before they would again function, but I had little doubt that the spare parts and tools required for that task were somewhere on the property.

The last compartment in the basement was locked, and again Dr. Moss searched his key ring for the key to unlatch it. It took all three of us to pull this last door open, so rusty were the hinges. It was pitch black in the large room, it's size obvious by the sound of the hollow echo. My lantern cast its light about the room and we saw what was inside. Urania screamed at the sight revealed by the high pressure gas flame. "Body parts!" she cried out, clutching her father. I walked into the room carrying my lantern to get a better look. There were quite a few dismembered arms, legs, hands, feet, and heads scattered about the room. None of the body parts were even slightly bloody however, so I carefully picked up an arm to examine and started to laugh.

"How can you find humor in something so macabre?" Urania yelled to me in horror.

"I'm sorry." I said returning to the doorway holding the limb. "But you can see that this is actually part of an automaton, not a person." I handed the arm to the girl who gathered her courage to touch it. "You're right." she said, "It's metal, not flesh!"

"There are quite a bit of these body parts scattered about the room." I said. "Edsel, It looks like your father was a bit of a Frankenstein after all, but his creations were mechanical, not flesh and blood."

"Well, that explains the stories told by the townsfolk," Dr. Moss laughed. I can't wait to discover what we will find upstairs in his workshop."

* * *

" **My** father's workshop was up on the top floor of the house," Edsel remarked. "It's one of the few strong memories I have of this place, perhaps because I was strongly scolded for sneaking up there on several occasions in my youth." We climbed a wide column of stairs to reach the third floor, and entered a large room that was walled by huge windows facing every direction. The tall ceiling was a lattice work of metal beams and columns that supported a patchwork of belts and pulleys that once supplied mechanical power to all sorts of machine tools though out the workshop. Levers and pull chains operated clutches to engage and disconnect pick offs from the main power shaft that ran down the center of the room where it was once driven by a very large belt that went clear down to the basement where a large steam engine once stood.

Though a window facing the rear of the property I could see the rusty ruins of a tall tower. Still standing, but now listing by a few degrees to the south, the structure's purpose seemed to be that of a wireless aerial. "Mr. Marconi is now in the news having recently demonstrated his new wireless invention," Edsel told me. "However, Mr. Tesla had demonstrated forms of wireless communication nearly a score of years earlier to less enthusiastic investors who didn't understand the technology. My father duplicated Nikola's experiments here years before Marconi even thought of it. That tower was part of my father's apparatus."

"What is this father?" Urania asked. The teenager was standing in front of a machine filled with gears, sprockets and toothed cylinders. It resembled a complex clockwork whose parts had been reduced greatly in size to allow more of the apparatus to fit in the same space. Despite the amazingly small size of its parts, the machine filled a good chunk of a corner wall of the room.

"That machine may be the Babbage apparatus that your grandfather once told me about." Dr. Moss said. "I'm not too sure of its function, but my father once told me that he believed it was possible to build a machine with enough complexity that it would be able to think and solve problems that would stump the smartest of geniuses."

 **We** explored the workshop for nearly two hours. Most of the equipment in the large room were tools, experimental machines, and crude prototypes of ideas that never saw the full light of day. I was looking over the contents of a large bookcase on a particularly dusty side of the room, marveling at the titles of many of the volumes that it contained. "Your father has quite the engineering library here." I remarked. "I'd love to own some of these rare books."

"Help yourself to whatever you like," My good friend told me. "My specialty is medicine, not mechanics as you well know. Some of those books might have sentimental value to me, but I'd rather see them in the hands of someone who actually understands their contents."

I took that remark as a compliment as I removed one particularly large volume from the shelf to examine it. I jumped backwards in surprise as I removed the book from its shelf, for it seemed that I had released a hidden trigger that caused the bookcase to slide forward and to the side on rails hidden in the floor. Once out of the way, a secret passage to another room appeared behind the heavy oak cabinet. "Edsel, come take a look at this!" I cried out.

 **The** three of us walked slowly through the hallway that had been hidden from our view behind the library. Here we found a much smaller room, illuminated by gas discharge electric lamps. "Those are not Edison lamps," I remarked, "They look more like the work of Mr. Tesla."

"Indeed, take a look over there." Edsel said pointing. In the corner of the room stood a piece of apparatus that I had heard of, but only saw operational once. Humming with the sound of high frequency electricity was a Tesla transformer, its high voltage output wired to the long glowing glass tubes that provided the light in this windowless part of the building.

"It seems that the equipment in here was triggered to operate when that hidden doorway was opened." I said.

"Look over here!" Urania said in a scared voice.

In a glass case a few feet from the teen were several child's size human heads. On closer inspection it was obvious that they were actually automaton parts. A lower shelf in the display box contained hands and feet that could have also been part of the same collection.

In the center of the room was what appeared to be a medical operating table. Made of rough-hewn lumber, the table had thick leather straps for the obvious purpose of holding a subject in place while a surgeon operated on him. Directly above the table hung a large Tesla discharge lamp for illuminating the work space. Higher up the ceiling above sported a glass skylight that could be opened to allow access to the sky. A windlass holding a large spool of thin metal cable was mounted next to the access hatch in the roof.

"For flying a kite to gain access to lighting, as the fictional Dr. Frankenstein might have?" I asked.

"It would almost seem so, but why?" Dr. Moss asked. "What was my father trying to do here?"

"Maybe the answer is in here?" Urania said in a low whisper.

Sitting on a wheeled table on the far side of the room was a metal box shaped like a coffin. It was about the right size to contain the remains of a small child, perhaps one of 9 or 10 years of age. The box appeared to be hermetically sealed, with numerous latches. Edsel Moss and I inspected the latches to see how to open them. Though not locked, it was tricky to release the dozen or so clamps holding the lid of the container closed. Finally we attempted to open it. Because of the air tight seal, the box lid resisted our first attempts to pry it open and we resorted to using several crow bar type tools to break the vacuum holding the lid down. Urania held her hands clamped tightly over her eyes in fear and dread as we cracked the final seal and gained access.

The inside of the box was lined with well padded violet velvet cushions, resembling the insides of an expensive casket. Lying in the box was what appeared to be the body of a young boy. The small child was dressed only in a pair of tight fitting black briefs lined with a wide green band. He also had a pair of red leather boots on his feet. Except for two pointy cowlicks sticking out at angles from the back of his head, the boy's hair was nicely combed and held in place by a greasy substance that the mortician had seen fit to apply to maintain his grooming for the after life.

Urania peeked between her fingers to glance at the contents of the box. Instead of being frightened by its contents, her curiosity peaked and she walked closer. The teen reached inside the casket to feel the body that lay within, and before we could stop her she had removed it and held it close to her.

"It's a doll!" she exclaimed.

Sure enough, the doctor and myself had been fooled by the well constructed automaton that the elder Moss had left behind in the sealed box. I motioned to Urania, and she handed me the boy like machine. It was about 4 feet in height and weighed perhaps 60 lbs. Its skin felt remarkably human like, but with little give as one would expect if muscle and bone were present underneath. It was clearly made of metal, but not any kind of metal that I was familiar with.

"Give him back to me." Urania asked. She took the boy in her arms and held him close against her breast, his head leaning against her shoulder. "I'm taking him back to my room." she announced and proceeded to leave the secret room and head back downstairs.

"Urania has always loved dolls." Edsel told me. "Though this does seem a bit spooky to me."

"Let her enjoy her new toy for awhile." I suggested. "We'll examine the automaton more closely later."

* * *

 **During** our dinner Urania's new friend sat next to her at the table, she had put him in a chair and even put a setting of china in front of him. The boy had the most beautiful life like brown eyes I'd ever seen on a doll, and a haunting smile. She'd dressed him in some old clothing she had found in a closet in one of the closed off bedrooms. One could almost imagine him as being alive instead of just a creation of my friends inventor father.

After a meal of roast mutton and ox tail soup I summoned up the courage to confront the girl. "Urania, your father and I would like to examine the automaton more closely."

"Sure, I guess so." she said, "Just do not take him apart!"

"I promise we won't do that." I said.

I carried the doll up the stairs to the workshop and laid it down on top of the operating table. Edsel found the switch that controlled the Tesla discharge lamp over the work table so we could get a better look at him. I removed the boy's shirt and felt along his chest. "Give me a sharp pin please, Edsel," I said.

My friend handed me the tool and I probed the surface of the automaton's skin until I found the hidden latch that opened up a panel in his chest. "Come look at this!" I called.

His insides were a work of art. He contained bellows, clockwork, springs and motors, all in miniature. What looked like some kind of Leyden jar in the middle of his mechanics seemed to be a source of power. "I think this thing was actually intended to be self animating." I suggested. "It probably was intended to perform parlor tricks or something."

"That would not surprise me, but how was it supposed to be charged?" Edsel asked.

"More to the point, would be did it ever really work?" I asked. "And why did your father seal him up like that?"

"Perhaps to await a new day." Edsel suggested, "My father was clearly decades ahead of his time, and so apparently were his inventions."

I looked across the room at the Tesla coil, but dismissed the idea. That machine was sized correctly to operate the lighting in the room, and nothing more. For some reason I suspected this boy like machine would require much more energy to bring to life. Though the skylight above me I could see the approach of a storm as lighting flashed in the distance. The rain hadn't yet started, and judging by the time between the lighting and thunder it was still many miles away. I then noticed a large box kite sitting in the corner of the room. "Edsel, do you think?"

My friend saw what had caught my eye and took the entire scene in. "Yes, I do think you are correct. A bit dangerous, but then again Mr. Franklyn survived the experiment once."

We worked at cranking open the skylight and hauling the kite up to the ceiling. I attached the metal cable to the kite and pushed it through the open hatch in the roof. The wind had freshened and the kite was quickly pulled upwards into the clouds. We strapped the automaton down to the operating table using the heavy leather belts and I connected the rubber insulated cable from the windlass up to the Leyden jar inside of the boy. The two of us now donned some heavy rubber gloves and aprons that we had found hanging. The accouterments were obviously part of a set of garments kept by Edsel's father for the purpose of working with high voltages.

Edsel release the ratchet on the windlass and the kite was pulled higher up by the wind. By now lighting was flashing cloud to cloud above us and the crashes of thunder were shaking the building. Urania stood at the doorway to the rear part of the workshop, her father kept waving for her to stand back.

The lighting flashes grew more and more intense, and I began to question the wisdom of what we were doing. Then it happened! The kite had drifted into the center of the charged region of the towering cumulonimbus and was struck by the full force of a major discharge. Millions of volts of electrical energy flashed down the steel cable and entered the body of the automaton strapped to the operating table. We were momentarily blinded by the flash of light and hurled backwards by the force of the discharge. I picked myself up from the floor where I had been deposited and looked up at the glowing body of the elder Moss's creation that we had just electrocuted.

The boy opened his eyes and tried to move. His head, chest, arms and legs were each held tightly to the wooden table by strong leather straps, held down with steel bolts. One by one he flexed his mechanical muscles and tore each of the restraints clear from his body. He looked at us more with curiosity and wonder, than with any sign of aggression or anger. Dr. Moss and I didn't know if we should run for our lives or assist our patient, we were both frozen stiff from the adrenalin reaction our bodies were subjecting us to.

The automaton braced himself against the table with his arms and slowly swung his legs over the side of the table as he sat up. He tried to lower himself to the floor, but his legs were as yet unsure and he fell face first to the floor. Urania ran into the room as her maternal instincts took hold. She helped the boy to his feet and held him against her to carry him out of the room.

I stopped her and looked into the boy's face. "Hello" he said in a weak voice. "My name is Atom, who are you, and where is my father?"

Dr. Moss ran his hands though the boys hair. "Hello Atom, my name is Edsel Moss."

"Dr. Moss?" Atom said, "You look like my dad."

"Yes, he was my father too." Edsel said. "I guess than makes us brothers?"

I was dumbfounded. Clearly this was no parlor trick machine. It appeared that the elder Dr. Moss had created a super miniature Babbage thinking apparatus, and put it into the body of an advanced automaton to create a living machine in the form of a small boy.

"Well then Atom I guess you're my uncle." Urania said as she carried the newly awakened being downstairs to her room.

* * *

 _I don't know yet if this will be the only chapter, or if I'll continue this story. I wrote this quickly as the idea of a Victorian Steampunk - Frankenstein like Astro origin story emerged into my mind based on someone's Deviantart posting._


	2. Chapter 2

**Frankensteam**

* * *

 _I've received enough encouragement to continue this story, so I now present the second chapter. I really love the Steampunk genre as it turns out that many of the classical fictional stories from the 19th and early 20th century were in fact Steampunk. I refer to the works of both Jules Verne and H.G. Wells in this thought, something you should keep in mind as you read this chapter!_

* * *

 ** _The Automaton_**

 **I** first met Dr. Edsel Moss in the city of Boston some years back. The two of us were taking classes at Harvard, I in the engineering discipline, and Edsel in the medical college. We both shared an interest in general science and we often frequented the observatory trying to get a view through the great 15 inch refractor telescope.

I was born in the city of New York, and spent most of my youth on the upper west side in the shadow of the Ninth Avenue El. I was the eldest of three other siblings, and the only male child in the bunch. I got along well with my two younger sisters, though I did often wish that I had a brother. We lived in a modestly upper class neighborhood, and though we were far from the richest family in the area, my parents had the means to send m to any college that I put my mind to get into. Having been accepted to Harvard, I naturally accepted the offer.

Upon my graduation I had offers of employment from several firms. I personally interviewed with George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison, being careful not to let either of these gentlemen know I'd been talking with the other! I finally accepted a position as an electrical engineer working with what would eventually become the Interboro rapid transit corporation, designing the systems that would electrify the city's elevated trains and the new subway then under construction.

 **Edsel** Moss was the only child of an English family in the outskirts of London. His father was a genius who spent most of his time, and his inheritance, on a mostly unsuccessful career as an inventor. His mother came from what could be called an aristocratic family, possibly with royal blood. She preferred to be seen in the company of other members of the ruling class, and was much too busy to be bothered raising a child. Edsel was well cared for by the best nannies that money could hire, and he was sent to the best schools. His father adored him and tried to make up for his mother's lack of parentage by spoiling the boy with gifts of toys. Strangely enough, Edsel's favorite plaything had been a doctor's stethoscope that his father had used to listen to his machinery with, he was able to diagnose defects in the works from the subtle sounds they produced. Perhaps that was an indication of the career choice that the boy would eventually make.

When Edsel was 9 years old his mother sent him away to the first of many boarding schools. Edsel missed his father, and never forgave his mother for not allowing him to come home from high school when his father lay on his death bed. When it was time for him to attend medical school he insisted on Harvard just to get as far away from his mother as possible. He never looked back and decided to remain an expatriate, establishing a successful medical practice in Boston.

Edsel married a beautiful widow of Greek descent, who had a young daughter. I'm certain that my friend was as deeply in love with the young girl as he was with her mother, for he was the ideal parent. The marriage didn't last very long, for his bride had a weak heart and suffered from fainting spells. She lost her footing while climbing the stairs to their third story apartment and fell down a flight of stairs to her death. I was at the funeral, it may have been the first time I truly weeped. The sight of Urania placing flowers on her mother's casket with her father was too much for me to handle.

Edsel's mother finally passed, and after a short legal battle his father's estate was settled with him as the sole heir. At first Dr. Moss didn't want to return to his native country, but Urania wanted to travel and see the world. My college friend asked me to accompany him, and having never been abroad I accepted his offer, especially after Urania begged me to come along. And so, there we were...

* * *

" **What** have we done?" Edsel said, face palming. "Have we awakened a monster and is my child safe with it?"

"To which I would have to ask you just how well did you know your father?" I answered. "From what I've read of his technical writings, he impressed me as being quite sane, not the sort of person I'd classify as a mad scientist."

"That's how I remember him as well, however I was away at boarding school during his latter period of inventing." Edsel said. "There are almost a decade of years during which I am not familiar with what he was doing."

"Perhaps he left some documents of his work somewhere in the house." I suggested.

"Yes, we should search though his study." My friend said.

We found the inventor's study on the second floor two rooms down from the master bedroom. Edsel found several filing cabinets filled with bound notebooks filled with detailed engineering drawings. The elder Moss had an easy to read handwriting that reminded me of the laboratory notebooks I'd seen in Edison's factory during a visit there on business.

There was also a drawer filled with numbered wax cylinders that I recognized as being the voice recording media used by Edison phonographs. We found the talking machine buried under a pile of rags in the corner of the room.

"It appears that your father may have made dictated notes to himself on these." I suggested, as I fitted one of the first cylinders onto the Edison machine and wound up its spring motor. I set the playback needle onto the cylinder and set the machine into motion.

" _January 15, 1889. I am now convinced that Babbage's crude engines have buried within their design the key to machine intelligence. It will be necessary to reduce the size of the engine's parts to sub-microscopic size, but if my theory of atomic structure is correct the way is clear on how to proceed with this. It will require a highly concentrated form of pure light consisting of a single band of the spectrum to machine the parts at the molecular level, and I believe that using Telsa's gas discharge lamps in concert with crystals of raw ruby such a light source may be achieved._

 _I have also come into the possession of the plans for a steam generator of the highest output, using the principal of pure energy reactions present in certain unstable elements found in the higher orders of the periodic table. I now can see my way clear to create the world's first living machine in human form."_

That was the contents of the first of the wax cylinders. Dr. Moss handed me one of the bound laboratory notebooks that contained his father's notes and drawings from that period of time. As I flipped though the pages I could see the internal design of the automaton evolve. It did indeed seem to have several power sources inside. The Leyden jar like device was both an electrical capacitor of a very high voltage design, as well as the reactor for the 'unstable element' that the elder Dr. Moss spoke of. A spherical boiler with high pressure lines running though out the machine powered the piston activators that motorvated the beings muscles. The drawings for the microscopic sized elements of the Babbage brain were way beyond my comprehension. Here I assume that even the senior Dr. Moss had taken a huge leap of faith, for nobody had ever suggested that a mechanical analogue of the human mind could even be possible.

I opened yet another of the notebooks and found what appeared to be a troubled confession by the inventor. I read the passage aloud ...

" _My first attempt at merging the Babbage brain with an automaton may have been a disaster. It was necessary to build the mechanical being at a large scale as I am not yet able to produce some of the machine parts in the miniature sizes I'd prefer. The eight foot tall being was actually quite gentile, his personally that of an Innocent child. The ignorant folk in the town below my estate treated him the same way that Frankenstein's creature was, they feared him as a monster. I suppose that I should have expected that, an eight foot tall child is something only his father could love. Still, it was my fault for letting him get loose, and the towns folk didn't understand that he only wanted to make friends."_

"Well that explains the stories I've heard, and why I received such a cold greeting in town." Edsel said.

I mounted the last of the Edison cylinders onto the machine and started it spinning.

" _April 7, 1893. After several years of failures I have manged to complete my work. The errors I made in my two previous attempts, one of which caused a small panic in the town have been corrected. This time I will succeed. This time I have been able to miniaturize all of the critical parts so that my creation is in the form of an innocent boy. I hope that he will be accepted by my neighbors and not feared. I've given this new automaton greater abilities than any I've ever created so that with the kind heart I've given his programming he may be prove himself as a hero and not be feared as a monster. His new power chamber requires more voltage to start the unstable reaction that I can produce with the Tesla coil or the Van de Graaff machine, so I will have to wait for the next electrical storm to provide the spark of life for my creation. I think my chance will come tonight, I need to get everything ready."_

"Greater abilities?" Edsel asked. "What did he mean by that?"

"Your father doesn't seem to have left behind a complete set of blueprints for the automaton." I said, "although there may be enough partial drawings scattered though out these laboratory notebooks to piece together exactly what's inside of the 'doll' that your daughter is sleeping with."

"Well for one thing, what did my dad mean by 'unstable' reactions?" Edsel asked.

"As I understand it," I explained, "Certain heavy elements, such as radium and uranium decay over time by emitting particles that can fog photographic plates that are shielded from light. These elements can produce great quantities of heat when enough mass in the pure form is concentrated in a contained vessel."

"My father's theories of atomic structure?" Edsel puzzled.

"Perhaps." I said. "I need to study these notebooks. Perhaps I can piece together enough details to understand exactly what your father has created. Meanwhile, I'd keep a close watch on your daughter."

* * *

 **The** next morning at the breakfast table Urania was quite cheerful as she prepared our scrambled eggs. Atom was sitting at the table, with a pleasant look on his face. He slowly drank water from a tall glass, refilling it several times. "Good morning Dr. Moss, Mr. Peng." he said upon seeing Edsel and myself.

"Atom doesn't eat anything being that he's mechanical," Urania explained, "But he does require water to fuel his internal steam engines, and to cool his power supply. At least that's what he told me."

I nodded at Urania's explanation. "I need to talk with you Edsel," I whispered.

"I take it that you've been able to research my father's notes." Dr. Moss said.

"I've managed to get though most of the pages," I replied. "Enough to give you a good outline of your father's claimed accomplishments."

"I'm all ears." Edsel replied.

"Atom's reactor, which is what your father calls the unstable reaction vessel, along with his improved steam generator, can produce a claimed 100,000 horse power. Your father lays claims to a bit of alchemistry, for he describes the automaton as being constructed with a unique steel alloy of his own invention many times stronger and more lightweight than anything currently in existence. However his design drawings for the unstable reactor and the steam generator do remind me of something I've seen before, indeed his metal alloy also may not be his own creation, but that of someone else."

"What do you mean?" Edsel asked.

"Some years back I ran into an engineering genius with rather strong political beliefs," I said. "This gentleman wanted to use his inventions to put an end to all war by acts of vigilante style terrorism. His name was Prince Dakkar, the son of an Indian Raja. I am quite certain that your father made use of many of this Dakkar's accomplishments in his work."


	3. Chapter 3

**Frankensteam**

 _The Metal Monster_

 **Dr.** Moss announced that he had decided to return to America as soon as we had taken full inventory of the estate. I helped organize the late inventors notebooks and blueprints, and carefully packed them all up for our return trip. Various bits and pieces of laboratory equipment were labeled and crated as well. Atom helped out by lifting and carrying the heavier items, the automaton had tremendous strength and dexterity.

The question of the mechanical boy's power source had been answered with out discovery of a lead lined metal chest containing many vials of a thick viscous fluid that could be seen to glow with a deep purple radiance in total darkness. "This must be the unstable element that your father mentioned in his laboratory notebooks." I exclaimed.

"That would be my opinion as well." Edsel replied. He opened Atom's chest panel and pointed to a filling port. "This is where the 'fuel' would go, he explained, "I believe that Atom is able to perform the refueling operation by himself, which might be safer since my father mentioned in his notes that he believed the unstable elements emissions might be harmful to animal life."

"That might explain the lead lining on the storage chest and the lead lined gloves and apron that were hanging nearby" I replied.

"True." Dr. Moss added, "and observe that the automaton's fuel tank and reaction vessel are similarly lined," as he pointed to the various parts inside the mechanical boy and closed his chest door.

"Is Atom to accompany us back to Boston?" Urania asked her father. "I mean, we can't just leave him alone here, if we did he'd just run down and die."

"Yes, we'll take him back with us," Edsel agreed, wishing to keep his daughter happy. "With a bit of makeup I think we can disguise him well enough so he will be accepted as your brother, and not a machine. Still, it would be best if he remained in our cabin on the ship during the passage."

* * *

 **Several** more weeks went by as my friend and I finished cleaning up the estate. We arranged for quite a lot of junk to be hauled away, and had finished packing what would be shipped back to America on the next steamer. I was tasked with the chore of making our travel arrangements, so I made use of the one horse dog cart that the doctor had hired and headed into town. There weren't any offices for the White Star Line in the small village so I had to make our arrangements via the telegraph office. The process took several hours as it involved waiting for a return wire from White Star's London offices. My quest was successful however, and I managed to book passage on the RMS Oceanic for her next sailing date to NY. I procured one large first class stateroom for the Doctor, his daughter, and Atom, and one single first class accommodation for myself. I also arranged for four railway tickets to get us to the seaport.

* * *

 **Finally** the day came for our departure. We made one last tour of the estate to be sure nothing important was being left behind. We had quite a pile of luggage sitting in the middle of the path leading down to the road where Urania was waiting in the horse drawn dog cart with Atom. Dr. Moss and I started to carry some of the suitcases down the path to load them onto the carriage, when my friend's daughter whispered something into the automaton's ear. Atom nodded and then leap out of the cart and ran towards us. He grabbed several of the heaviest suitcases and ran with them back to the carriage. Atom lifted them up as if they only contained feathers, and he carried them four at a time, or more. He picked up the two heaviest crates, each weighing over a hundred pounds apiece with no effort and loaded them onto the cart.

The road was damp from an overnight rain, and the wheels of our overloaded conveyance sank into the soft ground. Dr. Moss whipped the horse, but the animal struggled to get us moving. Urania grabbed her father's hand as he was about to encourage the poor mare with another application of the lash. She again held her mouth next to Atom's ear to talk to him. The automaton got out of his seat and walked to the back of the cart to push it. I could see a look of pure determination on his face as he leaned into the cart, grabbing the rear bumper with his large hands. He dug his boots into the ground and pushed.

Gradually the wheels rolled out of the ruts that they had sunken into and the horse was able to pull us along the road. We peaked the top of the small rise in the road that had presented the difficulty. The road then gradually descended down the small hill that the estate was built on, to reach the main highway into town. Atom let go of the carriage and ran to catch up and take his seat next to Urania.

 **We** arrived in town early enough to check into the railway station with our belongings and then grab some lunch at the inn just a block away as our train to the seaport wasn't due to depart for a bit over an hour. Atom sat in the cart with our belongings. "I don't need to eat anything, and my fuel and water levels are fine." He said. "I'll keep watch on our things while you enjoy your repast."

Edsel nodded an OK, and Urania opened her handbag to access the makeup she'd brought along. She applied various skin shades to Atom's exposed areas to complete the deception of him being a normal human boy. She then blew Atom a kiss as we walked from the station to the inn. Edsel and I ordered some thinly sliced beef with eggs, while Urania had selected a bowl of fresh fruit. She filled a metal flask that we had found in the house with water from the pitcher left on the table to take back with us. I paid the Inn keeper for our meal and we briskly walked back to the railway.

Our train had just entered the station and was now discharging the few passengers that had made the small town their final destination. The porters were loading our checked in luggage onto the baggage car, and Atom had grabbed the few suitcases we had elected to carry on board the train with us. A porter helped us find our seats and we quickly settled down for the journey toward the seaport.

It would be a long train ride to the seaport, we were expecting to arrive after dark. The Oceanic was scheduled for an early afternoon departure, but we would be able to board her and spend the night in our cabins. Urania and her father sat opposite each other with a small table in the middle. They passed the time by playing cards, either 'Old Maid', or 'Go Fish'. I busied myself reading a recent copy of the London times that the railway had provided.

An interesting article had caught my attention. It mentioned reports of some sort of sea monster that had been reported just off the coast of England in the Atlantic. Passengers of several ocean going liners, and the crews on various military vessels had reported seeing the creature, which mostly appeared at night. It had glowing white eyes, and made a roaring sound as it propelled itself though the water, usually just below the surface with only the top of its head visible. I have a good memory, and I was sure that the description of this beast was similar to a much earlier report from perhaps a decade or more ago. As I recall, several military ships were lost to a similar monster that had rammed them, holing them below the waterline. Survivors of these attacks had described a similar monster. Strangely enough, sightings of beast stopped within a few months of the first report. Now over ten years later, it seemed to have reappeared.

* * *

 **It** was now growing dark, and according to the train schedule and my watch we should have been within an hour or two of our destination. Suddenly the train lurched to a rapid stop that sent everything lying around loose flying. The conductor and porter ran by our compartment. I got up our of curiosity and followed them, noticing that Atom had also left the compartment and was right behind me. I made my way to the first car of the train, just behind the tender and engine, to find several crewmen in a huddle discussing something.

"Why have we stopped, and so quickly?" I asked.

"It's a good thing we were able to stop as fast as we did." the conductor replied, "The track ahead is damaged, we could have derailed."

The front door of the car was opened and the conductor used this means to exit the train and walk upon the roadbed. Atom and I followed him. We walked along side the locomotive, towards the front of the train. There, only a few yards ahead of the front wheels of the engine, a section of the rails had been torn loose from the ties. The steel was badly deformed and would have to be bent back into shape or replaced before we could make our way on it. I wondered what could have caused such damage to the track, but I then spotted the ruts in the roadbed running off to the left and downhill. There at the bottom of a ravine lay the twisted wreck of a work car.

"It would seem that there has been a partial derailment ahead of us." I said, "That caboose must have torn off the back of a previous train, and in the process of derailing it tore up the track."

"Exactly my analysis," the engineer said. "Unfortunately we don't have the tools to fix the track and will have to wait for a work train to come back here. It would take a blacksmith to mend that rail, and then we'd need hammers to drive in the spikes."

"We'll miss our connection with the steam ship then." I said.

"Maybe we'll get lucky and the work crew will arrive quickly," the conductor said to me.

Atom looked at the track. He pulled some of the spikes out of the ties with his bare hands and lifted the damaged rail aside. "Are these rails all of the same length?" he asked.

"Usually," the engineer said. "Especially since this is a straight section of track."

"Then can't we simply take a good piece of rail from behind the train and replace the bad section ahead of us with it? He asked.

"Yes, if we had the tools." The engineer said.

Suddenly the automaton broke into a run towards the back of the train. He returned within two minutes carrying a length of rail in one hand and a hand full of spikes in the other. As the engineer and conductor watched with their mouths hanging open, Atom dropped the replacement rail in place and pounded the spikes home with his fists.

"Just one more thing to do." Atom said. He grabbed several red flags from the engineer's cab in the locomotive and planted them several hundred yards behind the rear of the train. "That's a warning for any train behind us." he said.

* * *

 **The** rest of the rail trip went along without incident. We arrived only a half hour behind schedule, and our belongings were unloaded and carted over to our waiting ship. We were among the first passengers to arrive for boarding, so there wasn't anybody queued up at the customs departure. While we waited to get on board ship, Urania carefully touched up Atom's makeup so he wouldn't look too mechanical. Since we were boarding at night, it would be easy to get continue this deception.

The RMS Oceanic was delayed in her sailing due to orders of the admiralty. The warship, HMS Drake, had been ordered to accompany the Oceanic out to sea, and the frigate's crew were a little late returning from liberty. I assumed that the recent sightings of the sea monster had something to do with that decision.

We were rewarded with some fine sailing weather when we finally did manage to set sail. It was a cloudless night the first evening out, and from our staterooms we could see our escort ship a few hundred yards off our port side. The doctor and his daughter stayed in their cabin playing cards, Urania being a bit seasick. She had had the same problem on our journey out from Boston, but that had only lasted for few hours of the trip. I hoped she'd recover this time as quickly.

I stood on the deck to do a bit of stargazing. I had brought a small telescope on board with me, I'd found the instrument in the inventor's workshop, and my friend gifted it to me. I set the tripod up and tried to find the nebula in Orion. Despite the ship's slow roll with the waves, I was able to eventually spot my target, nestled in the sword belt of the constellation.

I became so engrossed with my new toy that I completely lost track of the time. Most of the passengers had gone to bed long ago and only the true insomniacs and the ship's crew remained up on deck. I then noticed the mechanical boy standing rigid not far from me.

"Are you OK, Atom?" I asked.

"Sure, Mr. Peng." He said. "I didn't want to disturb you."

* * *

 **Suddenly** there was the loud sound of a warning horn from the HMS Drake as she moved a little closer toward us. I turned my eyes toward the bow of the ship and I could see a dark shape rising out of the water. Two brilliant beacons of light shown forth from the apparition. I could feel the engines on the Oceanic slow down, and could see the Drake speeding up to intercept the intruder. I quickly turned my telescope towards the thing, and focused the lens. I now had a good look at the monster, and could clearly make out the rivets on its skin. It was clearly not a flesh and blood monster, but one made of iron or steel. I suddenly remembered the secret government documents I had been privy to read some years back. I had been among a chosen few that had been asked to analyze the intel gleamed from a few agents that had been secreted into the domain of a certain prince Dakkar. The man known to the world as Captain Nemo had been thought to have been lost with his submarine boat some years ago, but now it seemed that he had resurfaced. I didn't know if the captain of the Drake was aware of this tale, it had been kept out of common knowledge by the governments of the world to avoid a global panic.

A sudden canon report came from the Drake, the frigate had opened fire on the monster that lay just in front of her. "This isn't going to end well." I though out loud as the two vessels closed in on each other.

Atom had been standing beside me all this time, watching the action. "I've got to do something." He said.

I heard the sound of a steam reaction taking place inside of the automaton. Standing next to Atom I could feel a warmth emanate from him in the cool night air. "You better stand back, Mr. Peng." he said. "I don't want to scald you!"

I did what I was told as the boy blasted into the air on jets of superheated steam pouring out of the bottom of his feet! He flew like an artillery shell shot out of an 18" gun towards the metal monster, slamming his fists against her hull. The submarine boat quickly dived under the waves, veering off from her ramming course towards the Drake.

Both the Oceanic and the Drake came to a complete stop as their crews scanned the surface with field glasses looking for a reappearance of the monster, but to no avail.

While all eyes were turned towards the last spot where the thing had last been, Atom returned unnoticed and walked towards me. "Did you sink it?" I asked.

"No, just scared it off." He said. "That was no monster, it was an automaton like me."

"Actually, it was a submarine boat." I replied. "I'm sure it's the Nautilus, a work of the devil built by a mad genius named Nemo."


	4. Chapter 4

**Frankensteam**

 _The Real Enemy_

 **I** looked at my watch and saw that it was now after 3:00 in the morning. I suddenly realized how tired I was and decided to return to my stateroom and catch at least a few hours or shuteye before the breakfast call. "Perhaps you'd better spend the night in my stateroom," I suggested to Atom, "you might wake Dr. Moss and Urania if you entered their stateroom at this hour."

"Thanks Mr. Peng." Atom said. "That's a good idea, besides I don't have the key to their stateroom anyway."

We made our way back to my stateroom though the dimly lit hallways. The ship's lighting had been turned down for the evening, and it was quiet in the levels of the ship beneath the main deck. I inserted my key in the lock and opened the door only to find two gentlemen sitting there waiting for me.

One of them was taller than the other, he was clean shaven and wore a deerstalker hat on his head. The shorter man was wearing a bowler hat, he had a well trimmed mustache and ruddy side burns.

"I'm sorry to disturb you sir," the taller man said, as he rose with an outstretched hand, "but a recent turn of events has made it necessary."

"Who are you?" I asked, "and how did you get into my stateroom?"

"Skeleton key," he said, holding up the device for me to view. "My name is Sherlock Holmes, and this gentlemen is my close friend and assistant Dr. Watson," he motioned to the other gentlemen who also rose and extended me his hand.

After exchanging greetings and handshakes with my two uninvited guests, I inquired the nature of their business. "So what does the famous detective want with me?"

The detective turned to face Atom. He bent down to look the boy in the face. "Amazing, though I do see a bit of makeup has been applied. I assume this is the automaton created by the late Dr. Moss."

"Yes it is, I mean he is," I replied.

"This is the machine you told me about?" Dr. Watson muttered.

"He's not just a machine." I said, correcting the doctor, "He's a sentient mechanical being."

"What is you name son?" the doctor asked Atom.

"Atom, sir." The boy replied to the doctor, meekly.

"Amazing." Watson answered. "I shouldn't have doubted you Holmes, but the story was just too fantastic."

"How did you know about Atom?" I asked. "He was hidden inside of a locked metal casket in Dr. Moss's estate. We ourselves discovered him just weeks ago."

"That is a bit of a story," Holmes said, as he started to reach inside his coat pocket, "Er, do you mind if I smoke my pipe?"

"No, but please allow me to open the port holes so it doesn't get to stuffy in here." I replied.

"Allow me." The doctor replied as he operated the locking levers on the two windows in my stateroom.

Holmes extracted a long stemmed pipe and a pouch containing shag tobacco. He carefully filled the bowl of the pipe and manged to lite it using a single match. After taking a long drag and holding the smoke in his lungs for a few seconds, he exhaled it slowly. "That helps set my mind in the proper mood," he explained.

Normally I abhor the stench of tobacco, but the blend that the detective favored did have a rather nice aroma to it, and so long as it was diluted by some fresh air from the outside I found that not only could I tolerate it, I rather enjoyed the sensation. "Please go ahead with your story, sir." I said.

"As far as I know the exploits of a certain James Moriarty haven't been reported on in the American newspapers, so you may not have heard of the gentlemen." Holmes started, "Suffice to say he is one of the most ruthless underworld character in all of the British Empire. What makes him so dangerous is not just his connections in the underworld, nor his total lack of morals, but his extremely high IQ and quickness of thought. He is as sharp as a tack, and will make use of any advantage that comes his way. No new invention, concept, or idea is beyond his grasp. I'm sure after having been up on deck this evening you believe that Captain Nemo is once again prowling the depths in the Nautilus. I happen to know for certain that the former prince is now six feet under having exhaled his last breath some years ago. The remains of his submarine boat were until very recently hidden in an underwater cave somewhere in the Caribbean, but are right now in the hands of Moriarty."

"That does answer one nagging question that's been in the back of my mind since I saw the Nautilus with my own eyes this evening." I said.

"Several months ago I was hired by a Doctor Pegasus Moss to investigate the nature of several mysterious events that had happened to him." The detective continued, "the old man was an inventor, he explained to me that he was on the verge of a break though that would change life on this planet for the better beyond everyone's dreams. Dr. Pegasus showed me some of his notes and a few prototypes. His reason for hiring me was that he had received several threatening letters demanding that he turn his work over to a certain syndicate or face a horrible death. I examined the letters and concluded that they were certainly written by the professor. For several weeks I lay in ambush trying to protect my client, however I was outsmarted by my foe. The police ruled Moss's death as from natural causes, however doctor Watson here was able to conclude that he had been poisoned by a very unique compound that mimicked heart failure. I still haven't yet been able to determine the means by which the poison was introduced into my client. I was certain that Moriarty would return after my client was buried to search the estate for the doctor's secrets, so I maintained a guard around the place until his heir showed up to take possession of the property."

"Excuse me for interrupting," Dr. Watson interjected, "but why wasn't I with you during this case?"

"You were occupied otherwise my good fellow," Holmes replied, "you were handling the affairs of the widow York over on the east end, and you did a wonderful job on that case, I couldn't have handled it any better myself!"

"Oh yes that one," Watson said under his breath, "The search for a lost cat!"

"Precisely!" Holmes replied, "You know all about my allergies to cat dander, I would have been quite useless to our client. Fortunately you do not suffer from such an affliction!"

"I would have thought that we would have been in danger during our stay," I replied laughing a bit after the exchange between the detective and the doctor, "surely such a ruthless man would have gone to great lengths to secure the secrets that my friend's father had hidden in his workshop."

"Indeed." Holmes replied. " Moriarty isn't stupid, he intended to allow you to discover the documents and prototypes yourselves, then take them from you later on. It was only your desire to return back to America sooner that he had expected that saved you from a visit by the professor, however he quickly made other arrangements."

"The railway accident!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, that was definitely Moriarty's handiwork, or at least the work of one of his hired thugs," Holmes replied. "I was on the train with you, and as soon as the engineer discovered the damaged track and stopped his charge in time, Watson and I were scouting the grounds around the train looking for the hoodlums that intended to raid it. Just as Atom here repaired the tracks, something that Moriarty hadn't counted on, I had cold conked the would be attackers. I then had to make great haste to reboard the train which hadn't been hardly delayed at all."

"So the appearance of the 'sea monster' was yet another attempt to hijack us?"

"I don't doubt it for a second," Holmes replied. "Atom may have scared them off for now, but they will be back."

"Am I what this Moriarty is after?" The boy asked.

"Actually the technology that makes you possible is what the professor ultimately wants." Holmes said, "Though I'm certain that there are other inventions, or ideas buried in the late doctor's laboratory notes that would make equally prized plums to my foe."

"We need to inform Dr. Edsel Moss about this." I ejaculated.

"That can wait until the morning," Holmes said. "Doctor Watson and I will meet you for breakfast. We've been invited to the captain's table, please meet us there for the late seating."

With that the famous detective and his friend got up and left my compartment. I allowed a few moments for the air to clear some more before closing the port holes, and then made up my berth for what remained of the night. "I'll just set down in one of the chairs and power down for a few hours" Atom replied, closing his eyes.

I quickly got into my pajamas and under the covers. Despite the thoughts rapidly flowing through my mind I managed to fall asleep rather quickly, though I did have some most disturbing dreams.

* * *

 **The** morning sun's first rays tickled my face and awakened me. Despite my lack of sleep I quickly washed and dressed myself. I wanted to get over to my friend's stateroom quickly before they left for breakfast. Atom followed me into the hallway, he'd awakened himself without any assistance from me. I knocked on my friend's door, which was quickly opened by Urania. She saw the automaton standing behind me and reached out an arm to grab him. "Where have you been all night!" she exclaimed, "You must be 'hungry'. She sat Atom down on her bed and presented him with one of the lead lined canisters. The boy opened his chest panel and carefully refueled himself with the unstable elemental fluid. After draining the canister he crushed it into a compact lead ball, and dropped it into the waste basked. "It should be safe like that," he said.

"We've been invited to the captain's table for breakfast," I remarked, "Second sitting."

"That's good." Urania sighed, "I didn't think father was going to make it out of the shower in time for the first sitting anyway." She grabbed a tall tumbler from the table and filled it with water from the sink, and then handed it to Atom, "You probably need to replenish your water supply as well, don't you?" The boy nodded his head as he accepted the glass and slowly drank from it.

"More?" Urania asked.

"Yes please." Atom said, accepting a second helping.

My friend stepped out of the bathroom wearing only his robe. Urania turned around so her back was towards the beds, "You can dress father, I'm not looking."

I laughed a bit as my friend quickly dressed. He then walked back towards the mirror to comb his hair and trim his mustache. "I didn't receive any invite from the captain." Dr. Moss said.

"It wasn't directly from him." I said, "but rather though a third party, someone of some notable fame whom you've probably heard of."

I kept Edsel in suspense as we made our way towards the dinning room. When we reached the captain's table, we found four empty chairs, two on either side of the table, and two more near the table's head. Holmes and Watson took seats directly across from Dr. Moss and myself, Atom and Urania took places on either side of the captain's place at the head of the table.

"Why Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" Edsel replied, "My father mailed me your photo a few weeks before he died, he told me that he planed to hire you for some secret reason."

The two men shook hands from across the table. We all then sat down as the breakfast tea had just arrived. I lifted the kettle and poured tea for the captain, Holmes, Watson, Edsel and myself. Urania waved a 'no thanks' toward me and poured herself a glass of milk.

"So what brings the famous sleuth onto my ship?" the captain asked, "Just a pleasure trip, or business?"

"Unfortunately this isn't a holiday trip," Holmes said, "I rather fear that your ship may be in some danger, and that the younger Dr. Moss is the target."

Holmes quickly explained to the captain and my friend what he had revealed to me during the night. "I'll post some guards around the cargo hold where the doctor's luggage is stored," the captain exclaimed, and I can also post some guards in the corridor leading to your staterooms."

"That would be a prudent idea, I suppose," Holmes replied, "as we really don't know if the professor has men on board this ship, or even if he himself is on board. Still, the fact that the Nautilus was following us last night leads me to believe that he doesn't have a presence on this ship."

"Is the Drake still escorting us?" I asked.

"Good question." Holmes replied.

The captain pulled his pocket watch out from his vest pocket and looked at the time.

"She's still along side us for now." he replied. "She was supposed to turn off on patrol at 0900 hours, but I'll report your story to her captain over the semaphore at once, perhaps he'll ask to have his orders changed."

The captain got up and walked over to a speaking tube mounted on the wall behind him. He pressed a button to signal the bridge, and then spoke to his second in command.

"I've asked my number 2 to relay the information to the Drake at once." He said.

* * *

 _Well it appears that this story has become a bit of a crossover. I do tend to do that from time to time! I won't be relisting it as such however, for I have this feeling that it will become a mishmash of other 'borrowed' characters rather soon!_


	5. Chapter 5

**Frankensteam**

 _Unseen Trouble_

 **We** were up on deck at 1100 hours and watched as the HMS Drake slowly pulled away from along side of us. The warship had delayed her departure as our escort for two hours, during which time she had circled about, her crew keeping a sharp lookout for any sign of Nemo's submarine boat. Holmes circled about the main deck with a large pair of field glasses hanging by a strap from around his neck. He had them up to his eyes most of the time as he searched the surface of the waves looking for the metal monster we had seen the previous night.

"If the submarine boat were anywhere in the vicinity we should have caught a glimpse of it," Holmes muttered. "Unless the information I've received from my brother Mycroft is inaccurate, which his research never is, the key systems on Nemo's submarine boat that once enabled it to remain deep under the surface for weeks at a time were badly damaged in his last encounter with the royal navy. I doubt that even the great resources of James Moriarty would have been sufficient to have restored the craft to full operation. Limited only to the use of conventional batteries for power while submerged, it's unlikely the submarine would be able to remain hidden from view for more that a half a day. No, I think we can safely assume that or adversary has decided to meet us again after we arrive in New York or Boston."

"That's probably the reason that the Drake was sent off on its way." I replied. "The admiralty must have decided that the danger to the Oceanic was now minimal and they don't want to waste their resources on a wild goose chase."

"In this case, I think I agree with them," Holmes replied. "Traveling on the surface, the Nautilus should be capable of out running the Oceanic, and Moriarty will be able to arrive in New York before we make port. Make no mistake about this, we will have to be on our guard once we arrive. Have you made travel arrangements to Boston yet?"

"No, I was planning on buying us railway tickets on the next train out of Penn Station once we arrived." I said, "the White Star Line representative told me they would arrange for the shipment of our luggage from the dock to the station. We were planning on spending a night or two in the city, perhaps taking in a play on Broadway."

"Excellent idea." Holmes replied. "I will arrange for four hotel rooms on the same floor for us. You will allow me to make the railway bookings and I will see that the Doctor Moss's luggage is sent ahead by a most reliable bonded courier that I know of, it will throw the professor off the scent."

"You have connections in this country, Holmes?" Edsel asked.

"Actually via my brother Mycroft," Holmes explained, "He is Downing Street's expert on foreign travel."

* * *

 **True** to Holmes assumptions, the remainder of our crossing was made without incident. Holmes was concerned about our safety during the disembarking, however Mycroft had already wired ahead via the transatlantic cable to hire us some additional security from the Van Dorn detective agency.

"Are you sure that we can trust these men?" Dr. Moss asked.

"My good doctor," Holmes began, "I would trust any agent of the Van Dorn firm with my life, especially a Mr. Issac Bell who has been placed in charge of our case. As usual Mycroft has had the incredible foresight to arrange for almost everything that I might have never though of."

"Thank you for the compliment." I turned to face the gentlemen that was standing behind me. Perhaps a fraction of an inch taller than Holmes, he had the physique of lean prize fighter and was dressed like a baron.

"Mr. Bell?" I asked.

"Yes, I see that Mr. Holmes has already made my introduction." He replied. "My automobile is waiting in the street, There is room for the four of you, I'll transport you safely to your hotel."

The detective escorted us from the dock to the street where a fire engine red Locomobile was parked under the shade of a tall oak. While other agents of the detective firm supervised the handling of my friends luggage that we had taken back from the estate, the four of us took our seats in Mr. Bell's high powered automobile. Our personal suitcases had already been placed in the vehicles storage trunk. I sat in front next to the detective, while Dr. Moss, Urania and Atom occupied the rear seat. As we pulled away from the dock, I could see Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson blending in with the other Van Dorn agents. It seemed that we were in good hands and hopefully would not have any problems from Moriarty.

The Oceanic had berthed in a slip to the west of 12th Avenue just north of 20th street. We were now heading uptown and towards the east side of the island, where our selected lodging for the next few days was located The Van Dorn agency, in concert with Holmes had booked us a hotel on Park Avenue and 38th Street, within walking distance to Grand Central Station where we could board a north bound train. I could see that Issac Bell constantly had his head in motion, keeping his eyes moving about him on constant lookout for a possible tail. I myself could see nobody following us, except for the usual traffic in the busy midtown area of this great city.

We turned toward the east, passing under the super structure of the Ninth Avenue Elevated Railroad just as an uptown bound El train was lumbering above us. Pulled by a Forney 0-4-4-T tank engine, the El train left a trail of thick black smoke behind it. I'd read in the newspapers that electrification of the city's elevated lines would be complete by the end of the year, and those ancient steam engines would soon be delegated to the scrap heap. Coughing from the smoke, I thought that it wouldn't be soon enough.

Bell turned down one of the narrower streets to make his way from 6th Avenue towards Park, the tires on the Locomobile screamed as we bounded over some trolley tracks and they momentarily lost traction. "Sorry about the quick turn," Bell apologized, "I thought we'd picked up a tail, but if so I've now lost him." I hadn't seen anyone behind us, clearly the detectives eyes were much better trained than my own.

Bell parked his machine by the rear entrance to the hotel and ushered us in by the back door. We made our way though the hallway towards the front lobby, Bell immediately found the concierge and discretely palmed the man a tight wad of cash.

"Hello, Mr. Bell!" the hotel officer said. "Your guest's rooms are waiting, if you will all please follow me!"

We entered one of the elevators and were quickly carried up to the tenth floor of the building. The hallway was brightly illuminated, the floor under our feet was soft with thick shag carpet.

"The concierge will have a bell hop bring your suitcases up to your suites," Bell told us, "Dr. Moss's sensitive items will be in a locked storage room guarded by a half dozen Van Dorn detectives until they are to be shipped back to Boston with you. I'll be standing guard in the hallway for now, I have a room next to Dr. Moss for the evening."

We thanked Issac and started to settle in our quarters for the stay in New York.

* * *

 **There** was a knock on the door to my room, I peeked through the viewer at eye level to see the bell hop with my packed bag containing what I'd be needed for our short stay in the city. After he placed the suitcase on a table, I palmed him a fiver. While I was unpacking, hanging shirts and trousers in the closet, I heard my door open and close, but saw nobody. I dismissed this as someone having come upon the wrong room and realizing their mistake. However there then came a crashing sound from next door where Dr. Moss, Urania and Atom were staying.

I quickly ran to the door of my room and entered the hallway just in time to see Atom running down the hallway, followed by Bell. The automaton boy leaped forward to tackle an invisible foe, and came crashing down onto the floor, sliding into a maid's laundry cart and sending it flying down the hallway.

"What's going on here?" Bell asked as Atom was visibly struggling with something invisible.

"This man broke into our room an tried to grab Urania and run off with her!" he cried landing a right cross that must have caused quite a bruise on his combatant. The Van Dorn detective removed a fountain pen from his vest pocket, and pulling back the lever on the writing instrument, caused a stream of ink to spray onto the floor. Now made clearly visible to our eyes by the purple stain on his skin was a naked man about a head shorter than Issac.

"I see that I've arrived back here at just the right moment!" spoke Sherlock Holmes who had just emerged from the freight elevator. "I was expecting Moriarty to call in some favors and send one of his special agents!"

"Who is this creature?" Bell asked.

"This poor retch is the once renowned Dr. Griffin, a noted physician turned scientist." Holmes replied. "He discovered a serum that combined with the chemistry of the bodies skin cells caused them to refract light in a particular way that renders a person invisible to normal light. The serum also has the propensity to induce madness however."

"I can assure you I am quite sane!" our ink stained captive yelled. "Do you think that being invisible is such a wonderful feat? Well I can assure you that once the novelty wears off it is a living hell. Professor Moriarty has promised me that he would assist me in reversing the effects of my foolish discovery if I would help him obtain some desired items."

"By that I assume you mean the late Dr. Moss's scientific breakthrough's." I ejaculated, "and that the Professor wanted you to kidnap my friend's daughter to use as a bargaining pawn to obtain them."

"I'm sorry about that," Griffin sighed, "I had no intention of harming the girl."

"Perhaps," Holmes answered, "But your employer is not to be trusted in that!"

"Wait a second," I asked, "Atom how did you detect the presence of this invisible man in your room?"

"I could see him," the boy replied, "that is I can sense his body heat as an image."

"Of course!" Holmes laughed, face palming. "The great Newton did demonstrate that there are rays of light present beyond those that our eyes can see. The colors below red in the spectrum are heating ones, it would appear that the automaton's eyes are sensitive to those rays as well as the visible ones."

Issac bell grabbed a bed sheet from the maid's laundry cart and wrapped our captive in it like a Roman Toga. He pulled a stocking cap from the laundry bag and placed it over Griffin's head. By now several Van Dorn detectives had arrived on the scene. Bell hand cuffed our prisoner and pushed him over to two of his underlings. "Take this man into custody for questioning." Bell ordered, "and tell the chief to send over a half dozen more men, our clients are clearly going to require full time protection during their stay here, and on their trip back to Boston. We don't know what other dangers this professor Moriarty has planed for us."

 _Clive Cussler fans will note that I've borrowed his Issac Bell for this story, and have also made use of one of H. G. Well's characters as well. The number of extraordinary gentlemen in this tale is growing!_


	6. Chapter 6

**Frankensteam**

 _The Human Monster_

 **Under** watchful eye of the Van Dorn detectives we set out to take advantage of some of New York City's entertainment. My friend and I had wanted to obtain tickets for a Broadway play, however Urania had noticed the street advertisements for some of the new motion picture theaters that were now the latest fashion. Dr. Moss conceded to his daughter's wishes and we decided to attend the screening of "Le Voyage Dans La Lune", a French made science fiction film based on the novel by Jules Verne.

As we left our hotel we observed the contents of the lobby. Sherlock Holmes and his associate Dr. Watson were conversing with a distinctive looking gentlemen wearing a top hat and carrying a leather black bag. Dr. Watson saw us leaving the hotel and quickly ran to catch up with us.

"So what was that all about, Doctor?" I asked.

"Holmes asked me to accompany you to the theater while he looks after business at the hotel," Watson replied.

"I still don't understand why Atom couldn't come to the theater with us," Urania whined.

"Why?" Edsel asked. "He wouldn't have enjoyed it, as far as I can tell the automaton has no sense of humor, nor can he appreciate literature of any kind."

"Well he does seem to enjoy my reading to him." she insisted.

"He only pretends to because he knows it makes you happy." her father explained.

"But we left him all alone." she replied.

"Oh I'm sure he'll be alright." Dr. Watson chirped up. "Holmes and the Van Dorns are guarding your rooms which are all the way up on the tenth floor where a cat bugler couldn't possibly gain access to via the windows."

I then turned to the doctor and asked, "Who was that gentleman you and Mr. Holmes were interviewing in the lobby?"

"Oh him?" Watson replied. "Just a fellow physician I attended medical school with many years ago. We both practice medicine in London theses days, but his clientèle tend to be among the upper crust while I'm just a country doctor at heart."

"Strange that your friend would show up in N.Y. in the same place and time as us don't you think?" I asked.

"Perhaps, now that you mention it," Watson replied, "though that thought didn't occur to Holmes, or at least he didn't mention it to me."

* * *

 **The** motion theater was a short distance from our hotel, and we quickly arrived after a brisk walk. There was only a short queue for the purchase of tickets, and once inside we quickly found seats. The show started with a few newsreels, one of which showed the the magician Harry Houdini performing his feats of escape during his European tour.

"You know, we should have stopped in London to see the show, he's there right now." I laughed.

"I'm not that much excited by magic." Edsel replied. I always get too involved trying to figure out the trick to actually enjoy the show of it."

The four of us enjoyed the show, although Dr. Watson did complain about how he had found Verne's book to be more enjoyable than the screen play. We briefly stopped to purchase some candy for Urania from a street vendor, but soon arrived back at our Hotel to find a bit of a commotion taking place in the street.

Dr. Moss rushed us into the Hotel thinking it better to get us up to our rooms and out of sight, and Dr. Watson agreed that would be what Holmes would have suggested as well. Up on the tenth floor of the hotel we were greeted with the sight of everything in disarray. The door to my friends room had been ripped off of its hinges and everything inside was in a shambles. The window to the room had been broken in, and glass was scattered all about the place. Dr. Moss quickly looked around and saw that nothing of any importance was missing, except for the automaton Atom, who was nowhere to be seen.

Mr. Sherlock Holmes was already on the scene, examining the broken window with his glass. "What's going on here Mr. Holmes?" My friend asked.

"I was following up a lead elsewhere when one of Moriarty's hired henchmen broke into your room." The detective lamented. "By the time I arrived the police had lost track of the would be thief, who seems to have been chased off by your automaton. I should have expected this, I can only blame myself for not being right here when needed."

Holmes then proceeded to explain what he'd deduced thus far. "It would appear that the window has been broken in from the outside, and that was how the invader made his entrance," the detective said. "I can see the foot prints of a rather large barefoot individual in the carpet, he made his initial landing right here," Holmes pointing to a spot just under the window frame. "I can also read the signs of a struggle in the room between two combatants, one of them a good 21 hands tall, and a much shorter individual, perhaps just over 4 feet in height."

"That would be Atom." Urania sobbed.

"You can see where one of them was thrown to the floor smashing a chair," Holmes continued, pointing to a pile of sticks that once had been an expensive bit of furniture. "The fight then exited this room as they battled and smashed though the solid oak door, landing on that planter in the hallway."

Sure enough, I could see the remains of what was once a large flowerpot containing a small indoor tree, now just broken crockery and a pile of leaves. Holmes applied his lens to the carpet in the hallway and quickly turned the corner to the far end where the he entered the stairway and began to climb up towards the roof. I ran after him, up the two stories separating us from the top of the building, where we emerged onto the flat tar surface. Holmes pulled a battery operated torch from his pocket and he scanned the surface in front of us, finally shouting "A ha!" He followed the trail to the edge of the roof and looked beyond. The great detective then removed a folded spy glass from his coat pocket and looked across and down at the roof top of the building next door. "Amazing!" he uttered.

"You're not suggesting that they bounded off this roof to the next?" I asked.

"I am not suggesting anything." Holmes replied, "I am rather stating a fact. Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable must be the truth. I've followed the tracks from your rooms up to this point, none leave backwards, they end right here. My spyglass reveals to me where they landed some 200 feet in that direction. See for yourself."

He handed me the telescope and I trained it on the spot where he pointed. Though I am not a trained tracker, I could make out the depression in the tar paper on the roof shaped like a size 17 foot.

 **We** quickly ran down the 13 flights of stairs to the street below, Holmes took off in the direction leading to the adjacent building where he'd deduced that subject had leaped to. We ran up the steps to the roof where Holmes carefully examined the tarry surface looking for tracks. He quickly picked up the scent and entered the staircase at the far end of the building and followed it down. Upon reaching the lobby of the building we were spotted by Mr. Bell and several of the Van Dorn detectives.

"Ah, Mr. Holmes!" Issac called out, waving to us.

Holmes turned and walked swiftly towards where our fellow detectives were exchanging notes.

"I seem to have lost the trail of our invader," Holmes replied, "Though I can give you a rough description of the fiend."

"I can do better than that," Issac replied, "For I have several eye witnesses who got a good look at it."

"It?" I asked.

"Probably a good adjective," Holmes laughed, "for how else would you describe a seven foot tall hulk with size 17 or larger feet, a hairy body and the strength of a gorilla?"

"You deduced all that?" Bell gasped, "Amazing, since that is exactly how the witnesses described the perpetrator."

"Did they see in which direction from here they went?" Holmes asked.

"Downtown on 5th Avenue is all we know for now," Bell replied.

Holmes, Dr. Watson, and I climbed into Bell's waiting Locomobile and we headed downtown, crossing over from Park Avenue to 5th via 34th street. "I see you've brought your physician's bag along with you Watson," Holmes replied, "I hope you have a vial of a strong sedative and a syringe in there."

The detective pulled his spyglass from his coat pocket and scanned the horizon up ahead of us. The newly installed electric streetlights on the avenue gave us a clear view despite the lateness of the hour. Holmes aimed his telescope upwards as we passed 25th street. "I see him!" Holmes cried out.

As we approached 18th street, Bell spotted the thing and he pointed about halfway up the Fuller building at 175 5th Avenue. Bell pulled his automobile to the curb and shutdown the motor.

Hanging by one hand to a window grating halfway up the tallest building in the city, I could make out the creature that had crashed into my friends room. Indeed, it looked like an overgrown simian, but with the face of a man. It had enormous arms, equipped with muscles that appeared to be able to bend steel, and matching huge hands. Dressed in only a stretched out pair of briefs and a top hat, the creature would have been somewhat comical under other settings. In its free hand, it had a choke hold around the neck of our automaton, who was still fighting to free himself.

We stood in the street, looking up. Holmes assessed the situation, then turned to Bell.

"Do you have a revolver in your possession, Mr. Bell?"

"Of course," The detective smiled, producing the weapon. He was about to take aim when Holmes replied, "If you don't mind, but I think my aim might be better than yours."

Bell was momentarily taken back by the famous detective's remark, but he handed Mr. Holmes his revolver. "Let's put that to the test then Mr. Holmes."

Sherlock held the weapon in his right hand, using the cuff of his left arm to steady his aim. He double checked his target twice, then pulled the trigger once. His shot didn't seem to hit any vital areas, as the monster hardly flinched. "It would seem that you missed." Bell said.

"Not quite." Holmes answered.

Sure enough, the bullet had performed its intended function. The monster loosened his grip around Atom's neck enough for him to free himself. With a blast of superheated steam, he flew away from the building, and then turned back in attack mode. Diving down from several times the height of the Flatiron building, he struck his captor with an outstretched fist. The blow caused the creature to loose his balance, and it started to fall towards the street below. Bouncing once off the canopy covering the entrance way to the building, it landed face down in the street.

"Quick Watson, give it the shot now!" Holmes cried.

Dr. Watson opened his medical bag and produced a vial of a strong knockout drug and filled a syringe with the compound. He jammed the needle into the buttocks of the monster, and rammed the plunger home.

As the four of us stood in a circle around the fallen beast, Atom landed next to me to also observe. The drug administered by Dr. Watson quickly began to take effect, and the man mountain began to shrink in size. Suddenly the hairy ape like creature transformed into a respectable looking gentlemen, dressed in only his underwear. Watson bent down to better examine the poor wretch and get a look at the man's face.

"My God!" he exclaimed, "It's Dr. Jekyll!"

Watson produced a tube of smelling salts from his medical kit and waved it under the man's nose. Holmes removed his topcoat and wrapped it around Jekyll's frame as the man came to.

"Watson!" he exclaimed. "I feel so ashamed of myself. I hope you can forgive me."

"I've taken the liberty of calling for an ambulance," The Van Dorn detective announced, just as we observed the conveyance approaching from around the block.

* * *

 **About** an hour later I found myself with Bell, Holmes and Watson at Bellevue Hospital in the room where our transformed creature was recuperating. He was still a bit groggy from the effects of the fall, and the transformation that his body had undergone, but was none the less, awake enough to answer questions.

"How did you transform into such a hideous creature, Henry?," Watson asked, "and why did you break into Dr. Moss's hotel room?" Watson asked.

"It was my misfortune to think that I could play god," Dr. Jekyll sighed. "After the two of us graduated from medical school, you took the honorable road by opening up a simple practice treating your fellow men. I, on the other hand, wanted fame and glory. I only treated the upper crust, making a very good living charging large fees from those that had the means to pay them. I soon became well known among the royals as a skillful doctor with an excellent bedside manor. However I also was sought out by members of the underworld who needed healing with no questions asked. One such gentleman whom I discreetly treated for wounds he acquired during a run in with the law set me up in a laboratory where I was finally able to do the research into cellular regeneration, which was the topic of the thesis paper I'd written my final year at medical school."

"Yes, I remember your theories." Watson replied. "You wanted to slow down aging and prolong a vigorous life by defeating the process by which our cells naturally deteriorate."

"That was my intent," Henry agreed, "but my experiments didn't go as planed. I used myself as a guinea pig, injecting my own body with the potions that should have slowed aging. However the compounds had a strange side effect, transforming me into more than I was with the strength of many. I could control the result of a small dose, but as I increased the amount that I injected I lost memory of the experience, often waking up dazed and naked far from my laboratory. Days later I'd read reports in the newspapers of a strange beast on a rampage in the city, and I knew that it was my experiments gone wrong."

"Then why did you continue on this path of self destruction?" Watson asked.

"I had hoped that I could find where I'd gone wrong," Henry said. "The potion turned me into a superman, it made me feel more healthy than I'd ever been. Finally I burned though all of my own resources. That's when a certain professor, whom Mr. Holmes probably knows quite well, sought out my help. He needed my abilities to acquire some objects, including what he described as a 'machine boy' recently brought into this country. He promised that if I would assist him in his endeavors, he would provide the means for me to finally perfect my formulas. I suppose you now know the rest."

"Yes, the web weaved by Moriarty entrapped you as well," Holmes replied. "Issac, I think you should have a number of guards posted here at the hospital. I feel that Moriarty will not take kindly to failure and that Dr. Jekyll's life may be in danger."

"I'll see to it at once, Mr. Holmes." the Van Dorn detective agreed.


	7. Chapter 7

**Frankensteam**

 _The Airship_

 **Issac Bell** arranged for our travel back to Boston via the Penn Central railroad and had our luggage brought to the station early in the morning for departure on an early afternoon departure. A number of Van Dorn agents would be stationed on the train in a reserved car added as a special. Holmes meanwhile had disappeared from our party, and returned prior to our departure having made other arrangements.

"It seems that Moriarty has been keeping a rather sharp watch on us," he explained. "I slipped into one of my better disguises to do a few errands before your departure." He handed me four tickets on the New York Central line for a train leaving in less than two hours. "While Moriarty has his eyes on the Van Dorns and follows you to Boston, you will actually be on your way to Niagara falls," Holmes announced. "I've taken the liberty of purchasing a small wardrobe for you and your party. It will be necessary to disguise yourselves to fool anyone watching. Meanwhile, on the train to Boston Mr. Bell and some of his agents will be making believe that they are you. I'm happy to say that Issac is nearly as skilled in the art of makeup as I am."

"But Mr. Holmes," I complained, "Dr. Moss was anxious to get back home."

"I'm afraid that can't be helped," Holmes replied. "However while you are enjoying yourselves sightseeing at the great natural wonder near the Canadian boarder, the Van Dorns and I will be clearing the way for your safe return."

"But who will be watching over us?" I asked. "Surly you aren't taking any chances with our lives by betting Moriarty won't see though these plans."

"Have no fear on that account," Holmes smiled, "all as been taken into account."

* * *

 **Dr. Moss,** Urania, Atom and myself quickly changed into the clothes that Holmes had provided. The great detective then helped up apply the makeup appliances that he had prepared. I now appeared as a man a score of years older than my actual age, and a Scotsman in a kilt no less! Dr. Moss donned a wig of full blond hair, and a matching mustache attached with spirit gum. That, and the tattered uniform he now sported gave him the appearance of the late General Armstrong Custer. Urania hid her long hair under a school boy's cap, and dressed in a boy's pants. It was easy for her to be disguised as the opposite sex, especially as she as probably a tomboy at heart. Atom required a bit more careful application of Holmes art of disguise. He was now wearing an ankle length skirt with a matching blouse, a brunette wig completed the illusion.

The four of us boarded the train which pulled out of the station and emerged into the sunlight out of the depths of the tunnel beneath Park Avenue. I glanced about me but could not spot anyone who might have been looking for us. I hoped that Holmes knew what he was doing, and that we had managed to sneak out of the city without the watchful eyes of Moriarty observing us doing so.

* * *

 **The** stop in Albany was a long one as cars and an additional engine were added to the train for the westward run. I glanced at the timetable and observed that we'd also be stopping at Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, where we would transfer to a branch line for the last spur of our journey.

I kept an eye out for anyone suspicious but saw no threats. Atom and Urania kept each other amused during the trip, and neither minded staying in character. Dr. Moss and I had changed into more 'normal' clothes, although we both left our modified hair appearances in place. During our first dinner stop the four of us were seated at a table for four across from another table where a rather flamboyant gentlemen took a seat close to my side of his table. He was rather obnoxious in his manors, and seemed to be attempting, rather successfully too, to attract attention to himself. We did our best to ignore him, and thankfully, he found nothing on the menu to his liking and after consuming several glasses of wine left the dinning car just as our meal was being served.

I managed to sleep well during the night, and awoke to find that we were slightly ahead of schedule. We opted for the late breakfast seating that offered a continental style affair with choices of teas, coffee, pastries and breads. Atom consumed a pitcher of water to refill his internal steam generator, and pretended to munch on some buttered toast. I selected some green tea, while my friend drank his coffee black. Urania poured some milk over cereal for her selection.

Our stop at Buffalo was coming up and we gathered our belongings. Once again I didn't spy anyone watching us as we changed trains, and it appeared that Mr. Holmes had managed to confuse our adversary as to our intentions.

We checked into our hotel late in the afternoon. Our cab driver took the long route from the train station to the hotel to treat us to our first views of the famous waterfall. We noticed a boat landing on the Niagara river discharging passengers. "That's a sightseeing boat, you can get a wonderful bird's eye view of the falls from there," the hack explained, "I highly recommend it!"

* * *

 **I** came down early after unpacking and waited in the dinning room for my friends. The maitre d led me to a table and promised to direct my friends to where I was seated as soon as they arrived. I palmed him a few bills and he hurried off to his duties. Suddenly, the same boorish clown who had bothered us in the dining car the night before plopped himself down in a chair next to mine.

"Sir!" I protested, "This table is reserved, please remove yourself!"

"Really, is it necessary that you be so rude?" the man asked as he wiped his face with a large handkerchief. As the cloth removed a heavy charge of makeup I suddenly observed the face of Mr. Sherlock Holmes. "My god!" I laughed, "You certainly had me fooled!"

"That was entirely the idea," the detective replied, "Though it wasn't you that this disguise was intended for. I'm certain that Moriarty's agents were on board your train, I spend most of the night keeping an eye out, but did not spot them. At least my presence kept you and your party safe, but that means that they were on to me as well."

"So our diversion west was for naught?" I asked.

"Hardly, my good man." Holmes replied. "Unless I miss my guess, Moriarty has placed most of his forces on the lookout for Dr. Moss in Boston, his agents on this train, and probably a few others, were just a second thought. Quite frankly I'd have done the same were I in his shoes. Still I fear something is afoot, so we'll have to keep our wits about us."

"Is Dr. Watson with you?" I asked.

"Yes he's in a room a few doors down from you. I sent him ahead of us on an express," Holmes replied. "I had hoped that Moriarty might follow him instead thinking that I'd be on his train in disguise along with your party, but it seems that the professor was too smart to fall for such a simple trick."

Holmes pulled a bandanna from his pocket and wrapped it around his face, as he got up to leave.

"Won't you stay for breakfast?" I asked.

"No, I need to remain in the shadows for now," he replied

The dinning room was slowing filling with patrons for the morning meal. Dr. Moss and Urania found my table and joined me. "Where is the automaton," I asked.

"Atom is in our room keeping guard." Urania said proudly.

I looked up and saw a man with a bowler hat looking about as if lost. I raised my hand to wave at him and he soon spotted up. "Good morning Dr. Watson," I said.

"Good morning to you Mr. Peng," The doctor replied, taking his seat. "I suppose Holmes is about, in disguise," he questioned.

"I did see him very briefly," I acknowledged, "Though I suspect we won't notice him again until he wishes it."

"Quite so." Watson agreed.

Dr. Moss ordered a small steak for his breakfast, Watson a huge pile of bacon. I ordered eggs over easy, and Urania a bowl of grits. "I've arranged for a tour of the falls," Dr. Moss announced. "As long as we're stuck here until the detectives think it's safe to make our way back to Boston, we might as well see the sights."

"I've never seen the falls," Watson said, "In fact this is my first trip to the colonies."

 **We** finished our breakfast and returned to our rooms briefly to freshen up. I had the maitre d arrange for our transportation to the river. The large cab, a Pierce-Arrow motor vehicle offered us a comfortable ride from the hotel to the falls. We disembarked from the cab and made our way towards the edge of the precipice where a walkway guarded by a tall railing allowed visitors to look down upon the falling waters. The walkway extended for what seemed like several miles in both directions. At once spot, near the junction of the American and Canadian falls there was a long extension hanging out in free space supported by a steel tower some hundred feet tall. Urania ran out upon this to get a better view of the swirling maelstrom below.

Edsel called for his daughter to come back to us, but she only waved wanting her father to come and share the fabulous view. While I'm certain that the overlook bridge was well constructed, it was a scary feeling to walk on it, I could feel it slowly swaying in the wind.

* * *

 **Suddenly** a roaring sound like the combined buzzing of thousands of angry bees drowned overhead. We looked up to see an airship like none any of us had ever seen flying overhead. It had the same roughly cigar shaped fuselage that we'd come to expect of a large hydrogen gas filled craft, but this one had a sleek metal skin and was topped by several dozen engines each driving a large air screw. This airship was clearly heavier than air and was being held aloft by the downward thrust of its many screws. A man dressed in what resembled an underwater suit with a helmet and heavy gantlets was hanging from a cable attached to a windless at the bottom of the ship. He was being lowered towards where Urania stood, and while we gasped in horror, he grabbed hold of her and was quickly winched up towards the airship which started to rapidly rise into the air.

"Urania's been kidnapped!" I cried out pointing to the spot in the sky where the airship was now rapidly disappearing from view.

Atom had been standing with Edsel at the moment the airship had made its sudden appearance and departure. He quickly built up a head of steam and roared off into the sky, flying after the air pirate.

* * *

 **As** Dr. Moss, Watson and myself stood there watching the airship slowly become a dot in the sky, Sherlock Holmes appeared behind us. "As I feared, I was too late," he blurted out, banging his fist onto the railing of the overlook.

"You knew of that airship?" I asked.

"I only just discovered that the Albatross had been brought here," Holmes replied. "I was following up on a few leads as to threads cast by our James Moriarty during the past few days. We already know about his reaching out to grab Griffin, and Jekyll. I only just discovered that a Quercus Robur had been brought into league with the evil professor."

"Who is this Robur?" Moss asked.

"Perhaps as much of a genius as the late Captain Nemo," Holmes replied. The Albatross is his weapon of war which he has used against any nation that wronged him in the past. I only just learned of his presence here in Niagara, I wish I could have arrived some minutes earlier!"

"Perhaps all is not lost," I replied, "Atom as taken flight towards the airship. Perhaps he may be able to rescue Urania."

We waited by the river until the sun began to ebb, and then made our way back to our hotel. Holmes had already sent Watson to the telegraph office to inform the Van Dorn agency of what had happened. I accompanied my friend back to his hotel room with a heavy heart to await any word from Urania's captors for their demands. Edsel put his key into the lock and opened the door. There sitting on the bed was Urania, with Atom lying next to her. "Father!" she cried, leaping from where she sat to place her arms around him.

"How did you get free from those pirates?" her father asked.

"Atom saved me!" she sobbed, "And he gave his all to do it!"

The automaton lay motionless on the bed, his eyes closed. Dr. Moss opened his chest panel and looked at the instrumentation inside. "I'm not sure what has happened to him, but it looks like he's simply used up all of the unstable element fuel."

"We've sent all of that ahead to your place in Boston." I said.

"Yes, we'll just have to carefully pack Atom up for transport back home with us." Edsel replied. "I should be able to reactivate him once we get home."

"He was so brave!" Urania said though teary eyes. She found a handkerchief in her handbag and used it to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. Once she regained composure of herself she tried to tell us of the events of the past few hours.

* * *

"I was waving to you to join me, father" Urania said. "The view from the overlook bridge was fantastic. I never heard the airship overhead, the roar of the waters falling next to me was the only thing I could hear. Suddenly a pair of hands with iron gloves grabbed me and before I could fight my way from them I was being lifted high into the air. I must have screamed and pounded my fists against the man holding me, I wanted to scratch his eyes out, but he was wearing a helmet with a dark visor that hid his face. Before I knew it we had been hauled high into the air and were now inside some sort of ship. Two other men dressed in some sort of uniform took hold of me and I was being dragged along a narrow corridor. They threw me into what looked like a small state room and locked the door."

"I banged on the door for a few minutes, but I was ignored. Looking around me, I saw that the room I was in was actually intended as a guest room, like on an ocean liner. There was a rather comfortable bed, a small water closet, and a wash basin with running water. The facilities were quite clean and sanitary. I then noticed a small ice chest that was stocked with food and drink, though it contained nothing to my taste except for a bit of cheese and a container of fresh milk. There was also a port hole window, through which I could see the ground, now quite far below us."

"Seeing how far away the ship was taking me from you, and not knowing what they were going to do do with me had me scared, and I started to cry. I looked out the port hole as the ship turned and saw where you were standing looking up at me. That's when I saw Atom flying along side of the ship. I banged on the port hole trying to get him to notice me. That's when I remembered the morse code you taught me, daddy." Urania said. "I rapped on the glass with my fist, A.T.O.M. in the code. He must have heard it and understood it because he hovered in front of the window. The porthole was too small for me to crawl through even if we could have opened it, so he flew back from the ship to better examine it, looking for a way in. Suddenly he winked at me and smiled, and I knew he'd found something."

Urania got up and walked over to the sink to splash some water on her face. She filled a glass from the sink and drank most of its contents before going on with her story.

"I waited for many minutes, wondering if Atom would be able to find a way inside the airship. Suddenly the door to my cabin opened, and I was confronted by a tall individual wearing what looked like the uniform of the ship's captain. He had a well trimmed beard and mustache, and talked with a kind, but firm voice. He introduced himself as Captain Robur, and told me that he was the commander of the flying ship that we were in. I demanded to know why I'd been kidnapped, and he explained that you, my father, had in your possession the key to controlling the world by eliminating the ability of nations to wage war, but you didn't realize that it was now in your power. He promised that I'd be returned to you once you'd turned over all of the secrets that had been locked up in grandfather's laboratory."

"Suddenly, there was a commotion coming from the down the hallway. Robur turned to exit my room, he pulled some sort of handgun from his pocket and held it at ready. Out in the hallway, Atom was making his way from the back of the ship where the cable windlass was located, he'd gained entrance into the ship at the same point where I was brought on board. He fought his way past all of the crewmen that stood between the cable room and my door. Some of the crew fired their revolvers at Atom, but the shells simply ricocheted off of his body. Robur yelled that they cease fire, he stepped into the hallway and raised his weapon at Atom. His gun fired some sort of beam, almost like a shaft of light. Atom held up his hands, using them as a shield against the weapon as he walked toward Robur. He grabbed the gun from out of the man's hand and twisted it into a mangled mass. Robur grabbed an ax that was hanging in the hallway and swung it at Atom, but he deflected it, and tore it from Robur's grasp. Atom knocked the man to the floor hard enough to leave him dazed, and he grabbed my hand and led me forward though the ship. We were being chased by Robur's crewmen, up a flight of stairs that led to the top deck of the craft."

"Atom opened a hatchway and pulled me towards it. We climbed up and found ourselves on the roof of the ship, out in the open air. I held on to a railing, looking up at the multiple whirling blades that were driving the air downwards and keeping the ship aloft. Atom told me to hold on tightly to the railing. I watched as he flew upwards and started to smash the machinery driving the air screws. The ship began to shake and I felt us falling towards the ground below. Atom landed on the deck next to me just as Robur crawled back up through the open hatch. He held a large weapon of some sort and fired it at Atom. It was another beam weapon, only much more powerful than the hand gun that he'd used before. Atom lost his footing, and fell from the deck. I screamed as the ship suddenly lurched upwards, and then began to fall again. Robur was thrown over the side and was gone from sight. Suddenly Atom came flying back upwards. He grabbed on to me, and carried me from the damaged craft. I looked back and saw the airship hit the water below, it quickly sank and disappeared from view."

"It was a rough flight back here, that weapon Robur used against Atom must have damaged him, yet somehow he kept going. We reached the hotel, landing on the wide ledge just outside the window which I was able to open. We climbed into the room and Atom fell lifeless to the floor. I picked him up and laid him on the bed. I was trying to revive him when you walked into the room."


	8. Chapter 8

**Frankensteam**

 _The Lords of Time_

 **Mr. Holmes** poked his head into the room shortly after Urania had finished her story. She was still sitting next to Atom's lifeless body, sobbing. "Are you sure there is nothing that you can do for him father?"

Dr. Moss bowed his head, "I'm sorry dear, but without the equipment that we have sent ahead to Boston, there isn't much I can do for him. Even then most of his design is a total mystery to me."

Urania turned her eyes toward me, and gave me the same questioning look. "I may be an engineer, but your grandfather's work was way ahead of his time. I'm afraid I'd have to study his blueprints for months to figure out what was damaged," I said, "although hopefully your father's initial thought on being low on the critical element is his only problem."

Holmes looked at the automaton with grave concern. "If the clues that I've been picking up on are correct we may be in need of the mechanical boys strengths before we can make it back to Boston," he said. "I've sent Watson on an errand to obtain help."

At that the sound of tires squealing outside in the street alerted us to the arrival of a high powered automobile. I ran to the window to see the fire engine red Locomobile of Isaac Bell pulled up to the curb and three men getting out of it. I recognized the bowler hat of Dr. Watson, and the distinctive build of the Van Dorn detective, but the tall frail frame of the third man was unfamiliar. The party made their way though the hotel and up to our floor in a minutes time.

"We lucked out, Holmes," Watson said. "They were performing maintenance at the Westinghouse hydroelectric plant and their top engineer was supervising the work. He agreed to come with us."

Holmes turned towards the door and smiled. "Thank you for coming on such short notice, Mr. Tesla! I hope you can help us repair a certain piece of apparatus for us."

I'd heard of the Serbian genius of course, but I'd never met him. He had a well trimmed mustache and short dark hair, parted in the middle of his head. Thin in statue, with a far away look in his eyes, he looked every bit the mad scientist that people claimed him to be.

"I was planning on getting back to Wardenclyffe as soon as possible," Nikola complained, "I felt I still owed Westinghouse a favor so I made the trip out here. So what is it that you need me to look at?"

"Mr. Tesla," I replied, "have you ever met a Dr. Moss late of England?"

"I've heard of the man," Tesla replied, "He had some wild ideas of self controlled apparatus powered by perpetual energy."

"It may have sounded like that, I suppose," I replied. "But we do have an example of his design lying here on the bed."

The man who bested Edison in the war of the currents walked over to where Atom lay silently on the bed. He peered into the automaton's open chest hatch at mechanisms inside. "He actually built it?" Tesla mouthed. "Incredible! Miniaturized Babbage machine for a mind, high pressure regenerative steam power, and that impossible energy supply he bragged about."

Nikola turned to Dr. Watson, "Hand me my tool case, would you please?"

The Serbian inventor removed some sort of current meter from his tool box and carefully probed inside of the boy's circuits. He used a small compass attached to a stick to test for magnetic fields inside of the automaton's body. With a high powered eye lobe and a bright battery operated torch he looked around Atom's insides. "Dr. Watson, your stethoscope if you don't mind."

Watson removed the instrument from his black bag and handed it to our guest. Tesla motioned for us to be quiet as he moved the head of the instrument around and listened carefully. "I think I can revive him." he laughed producing a ball peen hammer from the tool box, which he used to tap at something deep inside the boy's chest. Tesla then took a short length of wire from his toolbox, and after putting on a pair of gloves he had borrowed from the doctor's bag, touched two places inside the automaton with the free ends of the cable. There was a rather large spark of electricity as Tesla pulled his hands free of Atom's body cavity.

The mechanical boy slowly opened his eyes and looked around. "Atom!" Urania cried out as she threw her arms around him and hugged him. She looked at at the electrical genius, "Thank you Mr. Tesla for saving my best friend!"

"You're quite welcome my dear," Nikola said.

* * *

 **Suddenly** we felt the air stir as if a small whirlwind had started within the hotel room. A ball of light emerged with a whirling sound like that of a hundred clocks all going at once. Withing the glowing sphere I could make out the silhouette of a figure seated on some sort of machine. It looked like some sort of bicycle with the rapidly rotating canopy of a large umbrella mounted sideways on the back of the machine. There were also several blinking lights on the front of the device which was now becoming more solid as the glow of the sphere of light began to fade.

Holmes recognized the figure seated on the strange conveyance that was now fully materialized in our midst. "James Moriarty!" the detective cried out.

"In the flesh!" the professor of mathematics confirmed. "You've somehow managed to outwit me despite the various favors my associates have done for me, so I've had to take matters in my own hand."

Moriarty was holding a rather large pistol in his right hand which he aimed at Dr. Moss. "I will require your assistance sir. You will return with me and provide the information I require."

"I don't have the documents you're after on my person." Edsel glared at the professor. "Nor will I get them for you."

Atom suddenly leaped off the bed towards the professor. He knocked the pistol from the man's hands, but the professor was strong, with good knowledge of several Asian martial arts techniques. The two of them struggled for a few seconds when suddenly the machine they were sitting on came back to life. It quickly began to glow with the same siren like noise that it made during its appearance. Before we knew what was happening the machine winked out of existence and was gone!

"He's got the automaton!" Dr. Moss cried out.

"I somehow don't think it will do him any good." I replied. "Hopefully Atom will over power the professor. But what nature of machine was that?"

"I think I know." Tesla replied. "I once mentally extrapolated the equations of James Clerk Maxwell to see how they applied to my own theories of alternating currents. I also came across a paper by a swiss patent clerk that went far beyond what the Scottish physicist had originally written. I never published my mental fantasy because I thought it too outlandish, however I did discuss it with a visiting British inventor at some convention at one time. This gentlemen told me I had discovered the principles required for traveling though time."

"It would not surprise me if Moriarty had stolen this inventor's machine." Holmes replied. "Tell me sir, would such a device be able to travel between any two points instantaneously as well as back and forth in time?"

"It might." Tesla suggested. "Which means that your evil professor could be anywhere by now."

* * *

 **Feeling** defeated, we packed up our things and made our way back to Boston. Holmes phoned ahead and verified with the Van Dorns that the items we'd sent ahead were still safely under their watchful eyes.

Our trip by rail back to New England was uneventful, and we soon arrived at Edsel Moss's home in the greater Boston area. My friend had several guest rooms and he insisted that I, Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson stay as long as well liked. Holmes insisted that there was still a chance of Moriarty returning to attempt to acquire my friend's father's equipment and data, but as the days passed it seemed that the treat from the professor was gone, along with the marvelous automaton. Urania kept to her room except to take her meals, she was obviously deeply effected by Atom's disappearance.

Several days later, the great detective and the Van Dorn agency had agreed that their work was finished in Boston. Holmes was certain that he would run into his nemesis again, and I could only wonder what damage a mad man with a time machine could cause. We were taking our last meal together in the large dining room of the Moss mansion when once again a strange apparition started to appear in the room. It started with a shimmer of the air, much like what one might see on a hot day over the dark surface of a road. The shimmer began to take on a box like shape, a tall blue rectangle with a blinking light on the top of it. It made the sound of a siren mixed with that of grinding gears as it became solid.

We stared at the spot where the strange thing was becoming solid. Standing in the corner of my friends dining room was what resembled a small outhouse. It had painted on the door 'police call box', with the city of London's emblem on it. The door slowly opened up and a strange looking man emerged from within. He wore a hat with a large floppy brim covering a head of very curly hair. He had a brightly colored scarf wrapped around his neck, and wore a slightly tattered red coat. "Hello?" he said meekly. "Sorry to pop in uninvited like this." He held out a paper sack in his right hand and offered its contents to us. "Jelly baby, anyone?"

"Who are you?," Dr. Moss demanded, "I suppose you are in league with that James Moriarty, aren't you?"

"I'm the doctor," the man replied, "and I'm afraid I don't know anyone named Moriarty."

"Moriarty stole some sort of time machine that can pop in and out just like the box you came in," I said.

"Oh, I see," the doctor laughed. "Well, perhaps you should step inside my Tardis and all will become clear."

All of us got up from the table. Dr. Moss and I slowly walked towards the open door of the small blue box. Urania followed her father, as the doctor motioned with his hands for Mr. Holmes and Watson to come as well. The five of us stood at the entrance to the thing which didn't look large enough for two people to stand side by side in, let along six. We all followed the doctor inside and were met with the shock of our lives.

The inside of the doctor's machine was quite larger than the outside. In fact we found ourselves in a space a large as the grand hallway of New York's Grand Central Station! "Takes a bit of getting used to, I suppose," The doctor said. "Just a minor bit of temporal engineering."

We were now inside the control room of the doctor's machine. "Welcome to the Tardis," he explained.

"Is this a time machine?" Holmes asked.

"Yes and no," The doctor said, "The name stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. The Tardis can travel though both time and space, it can go anywhere, and anywhen. It is an invention of my race, the Time Lords of the planet Gallifrey."

Urania then noticed Atom standing near the control console of the machine. "I believe this is yours," The doctor replied. "I ran across the Master fleeing on a rather primitive time machine that he'd stolen. I've been after the criminal Time Lord for many years now, and he's always managed to elude me. It turns out he was hiding on Earth for the past few decades. I had his machine transported aboard the Tardis, and found he'd taken a hostage."

"That would be me." Atom smiled. "Moriarty and I struggled for control of his machine after it left the hotel room. Suddenly we found ourselves inside of the Doctor's Tardis. I was then able to knock the professor out with a rabbit punch and explained to the Doctor about where I came from. It took him awhile to find your house, Dr. Moss."

Urania ran towards Atom and gave him a hug. "I was so worried about you."

Holmes turned to where James Moriarty sat tied up in a chair. "You mean to tell me Doctor, that my nemesis of all these years wasn't of this Earth?" Holmes asked.

"That is correct," the doctor replied. "He is now my prisoner and I will take him back to Gallifrey to stand trial."

"Urania?" Atom quavered.

"Yes, what is it?" my friends daughter asked.

"I think I need to leave you." the automaton sighed.

"What?" Dr. Moss, Urania and I asked.

The doctor looked at us, and at Atom. "Perhaps I should explain," he said. "Dr. Moss, your father was a man quite ahead of his time. If his inventions should fall into the wrong hands your civilization could very well self destruct. The only reason that he was able to do what he did was because he became aware of certain information from the future. It seems that the Master has been seeding bits of earth's future into its past with the intent of creating technology that he could use to his own inventions. Just as I was stuck on Earth when my Tardis broke down, the master was also marooned in your time on your planet without any means of returning to our timespace. He knew that he could influence certain scientists into creating the technology he'd need for his conquests. Your father's genius was genuine, but his insights were not exactly his own. I am sure that the inventor of the time machine that your Moriarty stole was also given the spark of his inspiration from the Master."

"I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Tesla was also so influenced." I replied.

"Perhaps." The doctor said, "However that is of no consequence. Most of Telsla's inventions will serve mankind well. A few of them will never see the light of day because the man will be seen as a bit of a crackpot late in life."

"But what about Atom?" Urania asked.

"He doesn't belong in this time frame," the doctor replied. "I will take him to the future where he will be safe, and where his advanced technology will be common place."

"Where would that be?" I asked.

"Oh somewhere around the year 2003, in Japan," The doctor replied.

"Goodbye!" Atom sighed. "It's for the best!"

Urania and Atom exchanged a final hug as we exited the Tardis. We watched as the machine dematerialized with Atom waving goodbye though the window of the Tardis.

"Well, if that don't beat all!" Watson laughed.

"I never would have deduced that Moriarty was from another world," Holmes agreed. "Still it does explain much."

* * *

 **I returned** to my home town of New York where I continued my career as an electrical engineer for the subway system. I continued to correspond with my friend Edsel for several years. He informed me that he'd placed all of his father's things in a sealed storage vault with instructions that they not be removed for a centuries time.

As I sit here writing this many score years have passed. Edsel left this world a few months ago and I attended his wake. It was the first time I'd seen Urania since that trip back in 1902 when I first laid eyes on the future. I'm now approaching the centenarian mark myself and I don't know how much longer I have to get this on paper. Already the technology that created the robot boy we brought to life up in the attic workshop in the old country is becoming more real. I hope that Shelley's Gothic tale has a happy ending for our creation, and that he's happy living in the future.

Urania never forgot her mechanical boy friend, she still keeps a photograph of him close at hand. I heard that she became interested in technology and obtained a degree in engineering at Harvard. She and another woman named Grace Hopper once worked side by side in building and programming one of the first computers during the final years of the second world war.

You know, perhaps someday Atom will exist again. I doubt I will be around to see him, but maybe Urania will. I hope so for her sake, she still misses him.


End file.
